Four Years Later, Seated Founders Reacquire Company from Sofar Sounds: ‘We’re Doubling Down on What We Do Best’

Seated co-founders John Griffin (left) and David McKay, who’ve reacquired their company from Sofar Sounds. Photo Credit: Seated

Four years and change after selling to Sofar Sounds, Seated has officially been reacquired by its founders.

Seated co-founder and CEO David McKay, whose ticketing platform says it helps artists “gain fan insights and sell more” concert passes, announced the newly finalized deal in a brief blog post.

According to that message, the repurchase arrived as Somerville, Massachusetts-headquartered Sofar zeroes in “on their amazing global experiences business” under CEO Warren Webster, who came aboard in October 2024.

Eight-year-old Seated opted against publicly disclosing the transaction’s financials. But it did mention a number of its artist users – among them Ed Sheeran, Brandi Carlile, and Jelly Roll – and tout its operational vision as a standalone entity.

“This re-acquisition gives us the flexibility and focus to go deeper,” McKay summed up. “We’re doubling down on what we do best – building great software for artists to own their ticketing, capture and activate their fan data, and grow meaningful relationships with the people showing up to their shows.”

Of course, at the intersection of ticket-pricing concerns and a growing superfan emphasis, the highlighted objectives are even more relevant now than they were when Sofar bought Seated.

“We’re incredibly grateful to the team at Sofar Sounds for supporting Seated’s growth over the past four years,” McKay added of the circumstances surrounding the transaction. “As they refocus on their amazing global experiences business, we’re excited to carry Seated forward and keep building for the artists we’re lucky enough to work with.”

At least from the outside looking in, the process of splitting Seated from Sofar doesn’t appear to have been too involved. Worth reiterating here is that the parties at the time of their February 2021 deal clarified that Seated would “keep operating their services independently.”

On the personnel front, Billboard indicated that McKay will remain at the helm of the once-again-independent company, with CTO and fellow co-founder John Griffin also staying aboard. Per its LinkedIn profile, Seated has between two and 10 employees (with some claiming roles at both the business and Sofar).

In the bigger picture, following recent years’ avalanche of music-space acquisitions, Seated isn’t alone in selling back to its founders and original owners.

Likewise part of the list are ROSTR and Absolute Label Services (which Utopia Music offloaded in February and July 2023, respectively) as well as SoundBetter and Soundtrap (sold by Spotify in October 2021 and June 2023, respectively), to name a few.

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